Her true calling
LIZA GEORGE
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Brigitte Revelli and her team will perform a play in the capital city.
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Brigitte Revelli has finally found her calling. Puppetry combined with music, drama and narration. The French choreographer, dancer and sculptor based in Deshamangalam, Thrissur, came to Kerala to study Kathakali 15 years ago.
"I attended a workshop by Sadanam Balakrishnan in Paris and was fascinated by the art form," she says. This fascination led her to India to study under the maestro in Delhi. She then came to Kerala to be trained at Kalamandalam.
No room for women
Brigitte, however, felt that the art form did not have room for women, especially a foreigner. This search for the right media to express herself led her towards sculpture. She turned her impressions on Kathakali into clay. "But they were inanimate. They failed to bring out the life and beauty of the art form," she says.
That was when Brigitte decided to try her hand at puppetry. "I can incorporate all that I love into this medium; music, acting... "
Having learnt Balinese mask dance, she decided to fuse puppets, masks and shadow puppets while depicting a play. However unlike a Kathakali performance, which usually depicts stories from Indian mythology, Brigitte uses her puppets to depict stories from around the world.
Her 2003 play `Never Forever' was based on stories from the Panchatantra and its influence on the world of French poet Jean de la Fontaine. The fables were brought to life through colourful puppets and actors wearing masks.
"The puppets, shadow puppets and actors donning masks come in and out according to the storyline. They have to flow with the story so that it does not jar the continuity of the play," she says.
Director of `Minaminungukkel' (fireflies), her Thrissur-based troupe, she stages plays in which both puppets and actors wearing masks narrate the story.
"I try to get the actors to get involved right from the time we create a character. We then chalk out how it should look and dress. Only then will there be an interest in the play and the character," she believes.
Their latest play `How Wang Fo was saved,' is a story from a collection of short stories by Marguerite Yourcenar called `Nouvelles Orientales' (Oriental Tales). The story revolves around a painter who possesses the power of bringing his paintings to life. A bitter emperor imprisons him only to have the painter escape through one of his works.
Brigitte and her team will perform the play on Saturday in the capital city. It is being organised by Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum and the Embassy of France in India.
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